The third running of Poker in the Park will take place on August 13th and 14th in Leicester Square in London. Its organizers bill the event as “Europe’s largest free poker festival,” featuring live tournaments, educational lectures, and a bevy of brand name poker pros on hand celebrating the game.
In 2008, the second running of Poker in the Park featured over 10,000 people descending upon the historic square, whose Casino at the Empire plays host to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe festivities each year. This time around, the tournament series shifts from being held on a Friday and Saturday to taking place on a Thursday and Friday, although a reason for the change in schedule was not given.
A variety of European poker pros were on hand last year to share their insight into the game with the festival’s patrons. Speakers included Tony Holden (who read from his book “Bigger Deal”), Ian Frazier (who discussed playing in short-handed poker games), David “Devilfish” Ulliott (who appropriately lectured on table banter), Paul Jackson (who discussed identifying and exploiting live poker tells), and Liv Boeree (who described to newcomers how to play No Limit Texas Hold’em). Other special guests on hand in 2008 included Nik Persaud, Neil Channing, Marc Goodwin, and Tom Sambrook.
The 2008 running of Poker in the Park was sponsored by Bluff Europe, PKR, Aces Royal, Fox Poker Club, Poker Kings, Jackpot Joy, Ace Poker, and Cardoza Books. Patrons were able to partake in a variety of free poker tournaments held throughout the massive Leicester Square, which is located in the heart of the historic European city. Tournaments held last year were the Sky Poker Cup, Gambling.com Sit n Go, SubTV Student Poker League Cup, LondonPubPoker.co.uk Trophy, Royal Surrey Trophy, iGaming Business Open, Nuts Poker League Challenge, LondonPokerMeetup.co.uk Cup, England Poker League Cup, and the Bluff Europe Championship, which capped off the two-day event.
Bluff Europe’s Editor-in-Chief Michael Caselli commented in a press release distributed last week, “Poker in the Park is about bringing poker enthusiasts from all over the U.K. together to meet their poker heroes, improve their play, and play poker absolutely free with other lovers of the game from all around the nation.” Companies interested in sponsoring Poker in the Park III should contact Ed Whittington of Lyceum Publishing at +44 (0) 207 828 6988.
Last year’s WSOP Europe Main Event was won by Full Tilt Poker pro John Juanda, who took home £868,800 and his fourth bracelet. A pair of Russian poker players finished second and third, as Stanislav Alekhin cashed for £533,950 as the runner up and Ivan Demidov, the WSOP Main Event second place finisher, grabbed another £334,850 for third place. Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu and Scott Fischman also reached the nine-handed final table that took place last September and October.
The 2008 WSOP Europe festivities also included three preliminary tournaments. Jesper Hougaard brought home the gold in a £1,575 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event for £144,218. He defeated Fuad Serhan heads-up with Yevgeniy “atimos” Timoshenko, Boyle Poker pro Neil Channing, and Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen also making the final table. The tournament was the first of WSOP Europe and attracted a healthy field of 410 entrants. Sherkhan Farnood, who bested a final table that also featured Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey, won a £2,650 buy-in HORSE event. Finally, Danish poker pro Theo Jorgensen defeated Team Betfair’s Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi heads-up in a £5,250 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event.
Poker in the Park is open to the public and is an 18 and up event. We’ll have more details as they are released right here on Poker News Daily.